To close out our year-long celebration of our 110th anniversary, we thought we’d give you one last artifact from our old issues. Below is an excerpt from a short item that ran in the equivalent “UpFront” of the Canadian Insurance issue for February 22, 1943.

We’re not too far past Remembrance Day for these words to lose their resonance, and with the latest terrorist attacks in Paris last month and the political rhetoric that invariably invokes the notion of being “at war,” maybe these words from long ago can offer perspective and suggest an attitude of graceful resolve, of a happy life and a good day’s work done beyond grim headlines… and of hope.

“PLANNING FOR PEACE”

We are today living through one of the crucial periods of the world’s history. Old beliefs, old ideals in this fourth year of war, are all going fast. Behind the smoke of battle far-sighted Canadians know that in this revolution of thought and of life, new conceptions and beliefs have been born. It is realized that individuals cannot live in the same old pattern. A large part of Canada’s industrial capacity has been turned from the production of consumer goods to the production of good of war.

There is no prospect of nation, individual or business going along in the same old way.

We, the people of Canada, must face these facts and adjust ourselves accordingly. The task of the insurance business, the companies, their agents, brokers, adjusters, is to plan for peace. To be up and doing, lending their expert services wherever they are needed. When peace is proclaimed, there will be a colossal task of re-establishment to be undertaken. Industrial and business concerns disrupted by the war will have to be placed on a peace-time basis. In the bright world which lies ahead, the business of insurance will play an ever-greater part and find for itself a future.

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Copyright 2015 Rogers Publishing Ltd. This article first appeared in the December 2015 edition of Canadian Insurance Top Broker magazine